AIBU to feel frustrated about manager's repeated maternity leave?

[ShesPregnantAgain]

My manager, let's call her Betty, has just announced her fifth pregnancy. I've enthusiastically congratulated her but I'm actually pissed off. She's barely been at work for the past 7 years. She gets pregnant, that makes her ill so she's off for most of her pregnancy, then 9 months on maternity leave, comes back and a few months later does it all again.

The job she used to do doesn't really exist any more. The company's moved on: all the people, systems and expectations are different. They get in maternity cover for her every time so someone gets trained up, actually does a good job, does a handover when she comes back and then leaves. It's so disruptive.

I know the company can't fire her for pregnancy-related sickness or for taking maternity leave per her statutory rights. They can't even performance manage her because she's never here long enough, or appoint one of her covers to do the job permanently. None of us can work for promotion to her level because that would discriminate against her. Her manager does promote people out sideways and upwards but she's just there, filling the role without actually doing anything. We all just get on without her.

I know that women, me included, benefit from these protections because of the crap women suffered in the past. I just think she's taking the piss.

Does it affect you and if so how?

Who decides how many kids is too many and ‘abusing’ the system? In the past, and without modern contraception, having more than 10 kids wasn’t unusual. Why is more than 2, too many?

How does she do her work while looking after multiple children at the same time?

I thought most companies had a rule to say that work from home should not be combined with caring responsibilities.

Someone on my team came back pregnant from her first 2 maternity leaves, then gave notice 2 weeks after returning from the 3rd. We were lucky that her excellent cover hadn’t accepted another job yet & was keen to become permanent.

But she’s not working is she, and if she doesn’t want to get ill then she can just not get pregnant. I’m stopping at 2 because hyperemesis nearly killed me.

Yanbu, she’s taking the piss.

Why on earth would you quit when you can be paid and not work??!

Because women with 10 kids generally didn’t line manage people or have the same kind of work commitments?

Companies aren't allowed to do that. She legally has to be offered the restructured role without having to apply or interview for it. One of the other two would lose out.

So she needs to manage her fecundity to suit her workplace

To be fair that is because your mamagers didn't authorise maternity cover not because women got pregnant. Arguably women should and do get paid for the very important work of gestating, birthing and caring for infants. It is incredibly short sighted to see this as economically worthless.

How does she get away without the travel if the covers have to do that? How dick is she? If someone is so ill when they are pregnant they can’t work for pretty much all their pregnancy why have 5 DC?

Shared parental leave!!! You can share up to 50 weeks of parental leave.

That’s a complete oversimplification. Employers are allowed to set criteria and if the protected employee does not match the criteria they can make them redundant.

Similarly, if multiple people (including the protected employee) are in the same role and the employer is reducing how many people are in that role the protected employee is still required to go through the same process (which can include an application and interview) and he unsuccessful/redundant.

E.g if there are 10 shop assistants being reduced to 8 the protected employee is not automatically entitled to one of the eight.

There are plenty of ways around it your employer can take, especially if her role is effectively redundant, as you say it is.

@Neurodiversitydoctor , not just a lack of funding many clinical professions in the NHS are at risk so it is very difficult to recruit, I have no issue with women being supported to have children and maintain their career but it is disingenuous to imply that the system is not abused by some individuals and that as individuals we do have to balance that with some responsibility to fulfil the role we are employed to do .

Sorry, have just read up on that to clarify and was coming back to correct.
She can be sacked for misconduct - so if she isn't following work policies around childcare being in place whilst WFH, then she can be. Obviously real good legal advice needs to be sought in order to do this.
If you do raise the impact of her frequent absences in a 1:1 then you need to do it from a business point of view ie up-to-date, correct programmes/structures need following. The disruption created by constant retraining for maternity covers, possible abuse of WFH policies etc. Surely they could find a way to keep the maternity cover on to 'retrain' the manager and find something for them to do whilst waiting for her to go off again!

Because it's not in her original job description, which hasn't been updated because she hasn't been there long enough to consult on the updates without it being indirect discrimination or something. Like I said, her original role has gone. Her covers are doing the role that's actually required.

I don't know the details of how sick she is during her pregnancies. Sometimes she'll WFH for a few weeks here and there but definitely no coming into the office.

I'm not disagreeing that having children is important and necessary. I'd quite like a pension at some point and recognise that it'll be my DC and hers that pay it. I'm disagreeing that it should be impossible for employers to recruit long-term job cover for a woman who intends to have multiple children.

Hell, no way was I resigning when I was on sick leave because I couldn't do the job. I took my full pay and stayed off as long as I could. I played the system - so judge me

They could restructure her to a new role and then later make that role redundant. You seem to think there’s absolutely nothing your employer can do but that’s not the case. They simply don’t want to for whatever reason.

So what have management said in response?

Assuming your next 1 to 1 is not with said manager, can you ask to report to someone else? Think of reasons why one or both would be better for you and your job.

I am…

Redundancy during maternity leave affords a special right to be offered first any suitable alternative.

Wfh with young children and babies??????

Believe me, I do judge, attitudes likes yours are part of the reason this country is in such a mess. All our industry has left or is leaving the country, finance isn’t doing that well and small/medium businesses are closing down at an alarming rate. When you are collecting a meagre UBI along with the rest of us, you will have plenty of time to reflect on how helpful ‘playing the system’ was to the health of our economy.

Can get OH involved next time she 'goes off sick'. She has to attend this... Then they can check whether she is able to work etc
Also cannot understand why they can't update her job description.....